


A Brief Reprieve

by tadok0ro



Series: Cole/Inquisitor One-shots [4]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Awkwardness, Comfort, Cuddling, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 10:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5536691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tadok0ro/pseuds/tadok0ro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lavellan asks for assistance in bed. Cole complies.</p>
<p>(Somewhere between "A Good Place to Start" and "Another Ball Another Dance")</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Brief Reprieve

They walk freely through the main hall, empty at the off hour, for once not having to sneak and avoid a milling mass of people. Its quiet besides their shuffling footsteps.

She grows tense when they pass beyond the door to her quarters and begin up the steps. She hasn't had him in her room since they'd started... whatever it is their relationship was. Her mind runs rampant with thoughts, images, situations of how things will play out- most of them ridiculous- and she worries.

He squeezes her hand, a gentle action that eases her from her thoughts and remembers that this is Cole, that she asked him for this help.

\--  
In front of her bed she shifts awkwardly and Cole stands still, hands at his front, picking at the threads of his gloves. Neither really know how to go about this. Foriegn ground for both. The simplicity of the request makes it oddly complex, like it would make more sense if under different pretense-- topling into bed in a passionate embrace, falling asleep exhausted after-- but that's not what she wants. She doesn't know if Cole wants anything like that, though, and-

"Don't worry, I don't think I'm ready for that yet," Cole says.

Her face warms. She forgets sometimes that he can still hear things, despite being more human.

"Right, well, uhmmm..." she lets the grip on the blanket loosen letting it fall away off her left shoulder. "Usually you get undressed and change into something to sleep in, but..." her gaze slips sideways to Cole. "You don't really have anything to wear so uhmmm..."

He pulls his hat off, places it gently on the side table, and starts to undo his belt. Revas practically spins on her feet to face away, face burning. Creators, help me. To distract herself from the sound of rustling clothes, she casts the blanket off herself and smooths it back over the top sheet of her bed.

"I don't have anything under the pants..." he says. "Do you still want me to take them off?"

"N-no! I mean, it's fine to keep them on, I, uh," she laughs nervously, scratches at her neck. She's only wearing an over-sized tunic over her smalls, enough to fit like a dress, but at least she had smalls and not.... nothing.

She shuffles into bed, shifting to the far side of it, laying stiffly on her back with the covers drawn up to her chin. He follows, although lays on his side facing her.

"What do you want me to do?" He asks.

"Just... lay there, I guess." She chews at her bottom lip, realizing how selfish this whole thing is. Since he couldn't disappear anymore, or make people forget,sometimes he'd use the early hours when people were asleep to place things that would help or were lost in their room or at their bedside. "You... don't have to stay if you want to..."

"Why would I want to leave?"

She turns her head towards him, peering at him through the darkness. "To help other people... I'm keeping your from helping them."

"Don't worry, they are small hurts, small things to help with, nothing so deep as yours. I want to help you, it makes me happy when I can help you."

She gives him a small smile, not sure if he can even see it and scoots closer to him, leans in and presses a small kiss to the side of his mouth before retreating back to her side of the bed. "Thank you."

\--

It takes a while for her to fall asleep, painfully aware of the body next to her, and when she finally drifts off, it's not a restful sleep.

Cole hadn't known about the nightmares, the torment that swarmed to her like a plague, festering deep into old wounds. Nightmares of the Fade, raw and wreched. The reeking, rotting smell of the false archdemon, the scorche of its flame baring down and the crushing grip of the magistar's blighted hands around her throat- suffocating, isolating, so utterly alone and facing down death before she even had time to live, before she had them as friends.

That's when Cole first met her, in the that swirling chaos of red and rage at the gates of Haven. She listened to him, accepted and remembered-- however much she could at the time. And she had helped him so much. Helped, but never hindered, always wanting happiness.

He's human and has so much more to learn.

She turns in her sleep, eye scrunched shut.

He shifts closer to her, tentative hands reaching. The contact of skin makes her flinch-- in her dreams she sees someone else, careful fingers ghosting over her skin as they recline, gaze tracing over the painted lines of a half-finished mural. The longer it lingers, the more it shifts and the shapes change-- the memory shifting to her want-- and the sorrowful elf whispering elvish in her ear becomes the scrawny boy with greasy hair speaking softly of the hurts he helped and her movement slows, expression softening.

Cole lets his arms wrap around her slowly, carefully. A wrong touch where the hurts are deep would send her back into pain. He doesn't want that.

He shifts closer, her back to his chest, and hold her tight. Her breathing slows and her strained muscles relax into the warmth behind her. The storm in her mind fades into nothing, a calm stillness that's only the eye of the storm, a brief reprieve.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a year ago and never posted it because I thought it was boring but I reread it and really liked it so yeah.


End file.
